Alternative Engine Inspiration
Resurrecting this old thread started by Bob Axsom. I've mentioned Russell Sherwood and his Subaru EG33 powered Glasair here from time to time because I've been more impressed by his installation than any other alternative engine installation out there. He has an enviable SARL record and a good number of flight hours over many years proving the reliability and power of his conversion.
I stole many of Russel's good ideas from his ventral radiator installation before I did mine. He is a retired ME from the automotive OEM world so had a good background to make this work. I was fortunate to meet him and his charming wife at Reno 2017, putting a face to all the emails we've traded over the years.
Russell recently published this on the Subaru forums:
"We have flown our Glasair 1RG in 22 air races. Throttle is firewalled during the entire race and gets a bit over 29 inches. RPM is now run around 5300. At these settings we burn just over 16 gallons (hr.). Water temps are adjusted to run at 195F. Gear box temp is about 198F. We found several drag reducing items that have helped boost our speed.
Races are usually about 150 nautical miles and take 35 to 40 minutes to run. There are usually 4 to 10 turns with the finish back at the start line. Often the turns are energy eaters of greater than 90 degrees. The race that we set the class record of 261 MPH had three turns of about 150 degrees.
The Sport Air Racing League keeps searchable records ? you can compare how your plane might match up. I throw out records from Air Venture Cup because they are mostly in a straight line and often west to east where you get a tailwind boost."
Russell has multiple class SARL wins to his credit and recently posted this nicely done video which might help inspire someone to use an EG33 or other Subaru engine in an RV or Rocket (think SARL or Reno):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VGnkvkguRE
Russell has over 600 flight hours now on this engine and to my knowledge, it's never been touched and was used when he bought it.